with Ian Grant

Cannabis use is increasing among youths, but is it any less dangerous? 

The motto ‘Don't sweat the small stuff' may sound like good parenting advice, but once you're entrenched in front-line parenting battles, it can all seem like big stuff. Here are some questions you should ask yourself in order to help gauge the true magnitude of an issue:

Is it dangerous?
Is it illegal?
Is it morally destructive?
Are there underlying problems?

Imagine you find a ‘tinny' of marijuana in your son's school bag. He'll claim he's looking after it for a friend. Yeah, right! You're tempted to think, ‘Well, it's only marijuana, and they all do that from time to time'. But before you minimise the incident too quickly, consider the four questions.

Is it dangerous?

Even pro-marijuana lobbyists concede that for young minds, this stuff is toxic. It reduces their capacity to function and learn. Its link to serious mental illness may be difficult to prove conclusively, but some think that even though genes provide the loaded gun for mental illness, it's often marijuana that pulls the trigger.

Is it illegal?

If your young person ever hopes to go to Disneyland, he'd better have a clean passport. Maybe the police have got better things to do than chase young people smoking weed, but it is illegal. When they buy it, they are associating with networks that are responsible for some of the worst crime in the country.

Is it morally destructive?

A drug habit could lead your child to lie, commit crime, do things they normally wouldn't do and carelessly hurt the ones they love. It's desperately sad for a parent to see their child's character, which they've nurtured with years of careful parenting, become warped and corrupted by a chemical.

Underlying problems?

Maybe most marijuana use is ‘recreational', but for a significant number of our young people, it can be a form of self-medication. They take it to escape depression, stress and other issues, but it can make their problems worse. For many, it cancels their sense of a future - depression and marijuana use are known common factors in many youth suicides.

This is definitely a battle worth engaging in. I think marijuana is perhaps our most understated youth problem, and if you need more convincing, I recommend you give The Great Brain Robbery by Trevor Grice and Tom Scott a read.

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